The Arc and the Sediment
Subtitle: a Novel
Edition: 1.00 edition
Publisher: Utah State University Press
Published: May 1, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 200
ISBN-13: 9780874216547
Subjects: Literary; Fiction / General; Fiction; Fiction - General; Interracial marriage; Women alcoholics; Women authors; Post-colonnialism
First sentence: Tonight Gretta will arrive sometime about midnight in Fort Defiance, Arizona, to retrieve her husband in time for their ninth anniversary. Failing that, she'll deliver to him his eagle-bone whistle. A three-legged Chihuahua will announce her arrival. Her little feet and broad shoulders will be admitted into a tidy if dilapidated trailer single-wide where she is not especially welcome.
Description: * "THE ARC AND THE SEDIMENT is a dark and lovely novel. Christine Allen-Yazzie has written the true story of a great new figure, a Burning Woman who for a few hours illuminates the outlands, the deserts where the forgotten of the earth walk in solitude." --Francois Camoin, WHY MEN ARE AFRAID OF WOMEN, winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award

* "Christine Allen-Yazzie's novel is terrific. A serious book, artfully written and crafted... The story the book tells, the characters it portrays, the plot it unfolds, and the jigsawing of time and place and circumstance all come together in remarkable ways, in ways that are a pleasure to deal with." --Darrell Spencer, author of BRING YOUR LEGS WITH YOU, winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize

* "Highly original and extremely complex and a wonderful read of a novel. Truly a work of serious and profound vision. Extremely well-written... The novel works on various layers… Of interest to cultural studies, indigenous literature, and American literature classes would be Allen-Yazzie’s treatment of the cross cultural marriage…[she] does so without sentimental appropriation. Allen Yazzie does not romanticize the 'Indian' nor does she ever forget her social positionality as a writer. As a result, Gretta’s critiques, misunderstandings, struggles, are revealed with real honesty. The conclusion of the novel is dynamitic; heart breaking, but truthful if not a little hopeful." --Helena Maria Viramontes, author of THEIR DOGS CAME WITH THEM and winner of the Luis Leal Award

* "Christine Allen-Yazzie has given us a novel that is gutsy, sad, and disturbing. Her book is a commentary (and improvisation) on race, love, and commitment." --E. Ethelbert Miller, author of HOW WE SLEEP ON THE NIGHTS WE DON'T MAKE LOVE and winner of the O. B. Hardison Poetry Prize
Notes: THE ARC AND THE SEDIMENT won the Utah Book Award (2008), an IPPY Award for regional fiction (2008), and best novel (prepublication, 2006) and best book-length work (prepublication, 2007) from the Utah Arts Council, as well as finalist in the James Jones First Novel Competition.
Table of contents: title: The Plan; The Plan, Amended; New Breasts = New Bras; To Food, Dear James; You Got to Cut Its Throat; Hello, Please Help Me; How to Make the World a Better Place; Just So You're All Right Now; All That Matters; The Arc and the Sediment; A Sore Cursing; Hello, Kitty; Fruit Sauce Should Always Be Served on the Side; The Curiously Multifaceted Nature of Victimization; The Wavering Red Light; An Unspeakable Shine; Forward, Anywhere; What Becomes of Virginia Dare; In the Vat Lies the Fruit; Second Place Is Pretty Good, Considering; A Little Reluctance Goes a Long Way; I Want Some Cookies; Who's Your Butterfly?; In Drills and Bursts; Rubber Hatchets; I'm Saying If; I'm Saying When; Do You Want to Save Changes?; As a Matter of Spite; Keeping It Out, Words for Later; And Also It Goes Back to That Whistle; They'll Eat My Irises; Or What; The Image Lasts All the Way Across; Afterword: Gretta's Alternative Twelve Steps to Sobriety